Recalling the first day she met her daughter, Sun said it was in the winter of 1990. "I found an unattended package at the gate of the village's nursing home," Sun said. "The baby girl was crying loud."

Having searched for the girl's family with Sun's neighbors, nobody came to claim her, she said. Out of pity, Sun took the baby home. Some neighbors tried to persuade her to give up the idea of adoption, assuming the abandoned child was ill.

At that time, Sun had been married less than one year without her own baby. Her husband supported her decision to take the baby in, and gave her name Chen Xue. Chen has since become a member of the family.

At the age of 2, Chen Xue was still not able to walk or speak. A diagnosis at the local hospital revealed the little girl had cerebral palsy, which is difficult to cure.

Sun and her husband chose to seek different doctors for their daughter, which cost them almost all their income.

"In fact, the situation hasn't become better and she can't take care of herself at all, but I never give up," Sun said. "At the age of 8, when she called me mom for the first time, I was all tears."

At the age of 43, an accidental pregnancy presented a new difficulty. "I decided to give birth to my second child, who can continue to look after her elder sister in the future," she told China Daily.

In order to support the family, Sun applied for a job as a waitress in a nearby hot spring hotel. After learning her story, the hotel manager decided to hire her. "We took her in as a cleaning lady so she will have time to look after her children and provide for her family," the manager said.